I'm finished with the bag, and will post photos tomorrow. But I'm in need of sage advice and wisdom. The class was really just a gathering of people who wanted to work on the bag. One nice soul who had finished the bag just earlier helped us all through the process. I arrived for the first day already exhausted and hurting and when I turned on my SM saw that the light on the display was off. I swear, I couldn't remember how to turn it on. I had to get out my manual, it took a few minutes, but only of my time. I had never put in a zipper before and the "teacher" talked me through the first one. I also had never made a button hole on that particular SM and had to look it up. But mostly I kept up with the rest of the class that first day (5 hours!). On the second day one of the women in the class (she works for the LQS where we were and often teaches classes) started to talk loudly about maybe she would teach a class in making the bag. But not for free. Then she started in on me (!!?) saying she would make sure that anyone taking her class would know how to use their sewing machines and already knew how to put in zippers. Now, this "kind soul" had required just as much help from the teacher as I had. She's a bit of a talker, really loud. I've been with her in other classes and typically she never finishes her projects unless she's teaching the class. Then she went on and on about how awful it was for someone to come to a class and not know how to use their own sewing machine.
So (that was a long story, sorry), should I say something to her privately about how unbearably rude that was, or should I just skip it. I will never, ever in my life pay for a class that she teaches. And I'm really not too happy about shopping there on days when she's behind the counter.
By that second day (6 hours) I was really tired, hurting way bad and getting confused. I went home and went straight to bed. I do have short term memory problems. And when I'm stressed I get confused. My fingers just stopped responding at one point and I dropped what I was holding. I know it was pretty obvious to anyone looking on that I was having a hard time making my fingers work.
Ok, enough whine. I like my bag a lot. It's gorgeous. I may make more of them and offer them for sale in a shop here. But it's a lotttttttt of work. Now that I know how to make it, I think the second one would be quicker. But it's a complex pattern with lots and lots of steps, including some that are just totally counter intuitive.
I'll put up pics tomorrow of the bag.
Sunny